1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the medical field, and more particularly, to facilitating communications between a patient, care-givers, visitors, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Oftentimes, patients are unable, or have difficulty, speaking with care-givers, visitors, and other personnel. This inability to speak clearly can make communications between the patient and others difficult. Typically, patients experience such speaking difficulties as a result of a particular medical treatment. Such is the case when a patient must be intubated or when the patient requires an inter-tracheal tube. Patients also can experience difficulty speaking, not as the result of a medical treatment, but as a direct result of an ailment, infirmity, or other medical condition. In any case, many situations arise in which a patient experiences either a loss of the ability to speak or difficulties in speaking.
Presently, when a patient who is unable to verbally communicate needs to communicate with care-givers, the patient uses a call button to effectively page personnel. As a normal intercom response from a nurse cannot verbally be answered by the patient, this generally requires that the nurse come to the room to find out what the patient needs. In consequence, the nurse must visit the patient. This can result in additional work for the nurse as a second, and even third trip, may be necessary, but cannot be determined until after the nurse has visited with the patient.
Alternative communication methods can be used in the case where a patient who is unable to verbally communicate wants to communicate with other persons within the same room. The patient can be given a sheet of paper having printed thereon the letters of the alphabet. The patient is asked to point to the letters one by one in order to spell words. This speech alternative, however, does have disadvantages. For example, detecting where one word ends and another word begins can be difficult. Consequently, as the patient points to the letters, the person with whom he is trying to communicate may not be able to follow what the patient is trying to articulate. Further adding to the problem, the patient may lack manual dexterity as a result of a medical treatment or condition and have difficulty pointing to desired letters. In an emergency, this can create a life-threatening situation.
Handwritten notes can provide another alternative to verbal communication. Some of the disadvantages associated with the use of a letter chart, however, also can apply to the use of handwritten notes. In fact, handwritten communications can require more manual dexterity than merely pointing to a letter and, at best, are tediously slow. Another disadvantage is that passing notes amidst the large number of cables, wires, monitors, tubes, and other medical equipment often proves difficult. Moreover, while fumbling for pen and paper or passing a note, one can inadvertently disconnect a monitor or tube thereby endangering the patient.
Conventional healthcare monitoring equipment, for example of the variety often used within intensive care units, is often thought to preclude the need for patients to call a nurse. Such equipment, however, can generate erroneous alerts and/or signals, must be reset from time to time, and may not be able to respond to each emergency need of a patient. Still, patients can have other needs or reasons for calling a nurse other than those which are monitored by conventional monitoring equipment.
While some attempts have been made to develop more effective patient communication systems, such systems have yet to adequately address the needs of patients lacking the ability to communicate verbally. Moreover, many systems do not facilitate communications between the patient and other persons in the same room, various hospital service personnel, or with visitors in remote locations whether or not they have the ability to speak.